


Tethered: Companion in Training

by SoldierBorn87



Series: Inevitabilities [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: At least through to the end of Season 2, Canon Compliant, Character Death, Classic Who, Cybermen - Freeform, Gen, Multiple Doctors (Doctor Who), The Year The Never Was, U.N.I.T.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-02 18:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoldierBorn87/pseuds/SoldierBorn87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is an infant the first time he meets the Doctor. This is the story of how he becomes the Doctor’s companion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is lovingly dedicated to Ethereal_Fire, who asked me back in April to write something where Stiles was the Doctor's companion. I know you wanted Nine, but Eleven worked better. Hope you still enjoy it. Also, sorry for the epically long wait.
> 
> This story is being betaed by my beloved Ruby and encouraged by my dear Maximus. As always, thanks. You guys are my rocks and I couldn't accomplish half the things I do without you.

Stiles is an infant the first time he meets the Doctor. 

He is tiny and red-in-the-face cranky – running from Cybermen will do that to even the most serene babies – and he wants nothing to do with the Time Lord who has just rescued him and his parents (not to mention all the other inhabitants of his birth planet). He simply cries and wails until the Doctor inevitably hands him back to his mother.

“Try not to take offense,” his father says, putting a comforting hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. “He’s the same way with me.”

The Doctor sighs and Stiles’ mother laughs. 

~~~

Stiles’ first memory of the Doctor is formed when he’s almost four.

They’re living in San Francisco now – they’d relocated to late twentieth century Earth not long after the Cybermen incident so as to be closer to his mother’s family – and his father is not happy.

Stiles is sitting on the Doctor’s lap, playing with his incredibly long and colourful scarf, while they listen to his parents argue about why his daddy should or shouldn’t retire from U.N.I.T. Stiles doesn’t know what U.N.I.T. is yet – all he knows is that it keeps his daddy from being home a lot and makes his mommy worry – so, personally, he agrees with his mommy. Daddy should retire.

“Doctor, back me up here,” his mother says.

“Um…”

“Stay out of this. It’s none of your –”

“It is totally his business, since he has to come rescue you half the time.”

“He does not.”

“Actually…”

“Stay out of this!”

Stiles won’t remember how things end that day – the scarf is very distracting – but he will later realize that his mother must have eventually won the argument because they move to Beacon Hills a couple months later where his father takes a job running the county Sheriff’s department. 

~~~

Stiles is five the first time he asks his mother if he can go travelling with the Doctor. 

The Doctor had stopped by to visit and Stiles had been captivated by all of the grand stories he had to tell. He knew mother and father’s stories of course, but the Doctor had so many _more_. Stiles had hung on every word, every syllable in fact. For the first time the stories he was listening to made him want to go out and see the universe for himself and Stiles realized he _really_ wanted to have stories of his own to tell. 

“Mommy?” he asks, while she’s tucking him in for bed. “Do you think I could go adventurin’ through time-space with the Doctor? I’ll listen and be really, really good. I promise.” 

Stiles’ mother runs her fingers soothingly through his curly hair as she smiles down at him. “Maybe someday when you’re older, sweetheart.”

She kisses him goodnight and Stiles dreams of travelling in the Doctor’s amazing blue box.

The next day Stiles starts pinning various vegetables to his t-shirts and running around the house chasing after – thankfully imaginary – aliens. His father is distraught because he’s sure it’s an omen of things to come, but his mother is simply amused. She smiles at his antics and helps him pin the veggies back on when they inevitably fall off.

She knows hero worship when she sees it. After all, she saw the same look every time she glanced in a mirror when she was younger and chasing after not-so-imaginary aliens with the Doctor.

~~~

Stiles is eight when he learns that the Doctor can’t save everyone. 

He’s sitting by his mother’s bedside watching her sleep. He thinks she almost looks like an alien out of one of the Doctor’s stories. Her long dark curls are gone and she’s too pale and too thin, not to mention her arms are covered in bruises from all the needles the doctors keep sticking her with. 

It takes Stiles a moment to realize it’s suddenly gotten quiet. He can’t hear his father yelling at the Doctor anymore. All he hears are the heartbreaking sounds of machines beeping and IV fluid dripping.

The door to the room opens and the Doctor comes in and sits in the chair beside him. He looks tired. He has bags under his sad pale eyes and his reddish-brown curls hang in limp disarray around his face and neck.

“Why can’t you help her?” Stiles asks, not looking at the Doctor.

“It’s complicated.”

“But daddy said there’s a cure.” Stiles starts picking at the seam on the side of his jeans. “In the future. On the planet where I was born. They have a way to make her better.”

The Doctor sighs and looks down at Stiles. “There are some things, Stiles, that no matter how much I want to change to them I cannot. They’re called fixed points and they have to happen the way they happen or universe-ending paradoxes occur. I know it’s hard to believe, but your mom being sick is one of those things. It’s a fixed point in the space-time continuum. Do you understand?”

Stiles shakes his head. It’s his mom, how could saving her be bad?

“Stiles, look at me.” 

Stiles reluctantly takes his eyes off his mom and looks up at the Doctor.

“If I help your mom, if I get her that cure your father was talking about – and trust me, I really want to – then a lot of other people are probably going to die in her place. Now you and I both know your mom wouldn’t want anyone to hurt instead of her, right? She would be very sad if she thought she caused someone else pain.” 

Stiles nods. He knows it’s true. He feels the same way.

“I know it hurts, but this is something that just has to be.”

Stiles looks back at his mom. “It’s not fair.”

The Doctor wraps a comforting arm around his shoulders. “I agree.”

~~~

Stiles’ mother passes away one month later on a rainy afternoon in mid-June.

The funeral is three days after that. 

The Doctor is there of course, but before Stiles can so much as say hi, his father is storming over to the Time Lord and telling him to leave. He keeps his voice low, but his tone is dark and dangerous as he threatens the Doctor in no uncertain terms should he ever dare to darken their doorstep again.

Stiles doesn’t see the Doctor again for a long time after that. 

Although sometimes, Stiles imagines he sees him standing near his mother’s grave when he goes there to visit her.

~~~

Stiles doesn’t remember the year Harold Saxon took over the world with the help of the Toclafane.

He doesn’t remember being thirteen and helping his dad, along with several other American U.N.I.T. survivors, form a secret network for the sole purpose of working towards ending Saxon’s reign of terror.

He doesn’t remember meeting Martha Jones and helping her travel safely to the California coastline, so she could catch a ride on a ship headed for Japan.

He doesn’t remember spending one night by a camp fire – long after his dad had gone to sleep of course – telling her that he didn’t need her stories to believe in the Doctor because he had his mom’s and his dad’s and his own memories to cement his belief. 

He doesn’t remember making her promise if she ever gets the chance, to tell the Doctor that Stiles misses him and his dad isn’t really that mad anymore.

And he also doesn’t remember giving his life – on the day before his fourteenth birthday, months before Martha ever got the chance to keep her promise – to protect a little kid from some asshole human enforcers.

~~~

Stiles is less than three months away from his fifteenth birthday when he starts acting out and getting himself into trouble.

His dad is working for U.N.I.T. again – he went back on an “as needed” basis shortly after his mom passed away – and Stiles is sick of it. 

He doesn’t really mind having to spend a week or two every few months at Scott’s when his dad goes away, but he really hates the worrying. He hates not knowing what’s going on (unless something drastic – like the whole ATMOS thing – happens to make the news) and he hates not knowing whether his dad will come back. He’s already lost one parent; he doesn’t want to lose another.

This time his dad came home with a broken arm and a sprained ankle. It’s the last straw.

Stiles argues with his dad about it, but unlike his mother, he gets nowhere. 

So instead, Stiles decides to make his dad’s life miserable, so he is forced to stay in Beacon Hills. Admittedly it’s not the best plan, but desperate times and all that.

Stiles lingers just shy of the right side of the law and does his best to make sure Scott’s not overly involved in any of his schemes. After all, it’s not like he can tell Scott why his dad’s “business trips” worry him so much when Scott doesn’t know anything about the Doctor or U.N.I.T. or the fact that Stiles’ dad and he are technically aliens from the future. Oh how he wishes he could tell Scott that last one just to see his face.

It takes Stiles’ dad way too long to finally figure out why he’s skipping school, letting his grades slide, harassing deputies, and just in general causing mayhem and misery whenever the notion seems to strike him.

When his dad finally does figure it out, he sits his son down and they talk seriously about what’s going on and why Stiles is being difficult and how scared Stiles is for his dad. It’s a long conversation and not altogether that pleasant, but at the end of it his dad reluctantly agrees to go back into retirement.

~~~

Stiles is sixteen when he figures out werewolves really are a thing and _holy shit, now he has to deal with them on a daily basis!_

Stiles doesn’t tell his dad about what’s going on mainly because he’s worried his dad will feel obligated to inform U.N.I.T. Stiles doesn’t know if U.N.I.T. actually knows about werewolves – probably – but he worries that if they do, they may deal with them in a similar fashion to hunters – only _way_ more efficiently because hey, it’s U.N.I.T. – and Stiles really doesn’t want to lose his best and only friend. 

So yeah, that’s when and why Stiles starts lying to his dad for the first time in his life.

It sucks. And it bothers him. A lot.


	2. Chapter 2

Stiles is practicing his lacrosse moves with Scott as a way of relieving tension after finals – not to mention the whole Kanima thing – when he finally sees the Doctor again. 

He knows it’s not his imagination this time, because it’s Scott who stops and stares, and Stiles who has to turn and look when he asks, “Who’s that?” 

Stiles can’t stop the grin that completely takes over his face. He wouldn’t want to.

“Family friend,” he says to Scott before he shouts, “Hey, John!” and waves. 

Stiles has been conditioned from a young age to always refer to the Doctor as John Smith whenever people not in the know are around. It’s a habit that’s never left him.

The Doctor grins and nods back. He’s leaning against a tree across the field dressed in a tweed jacket, dark trousers, blue button-down shirt, and a red bowtie. Personally, Stiles will always be a fan of the long scarf, but this look is pretty cool too. 

“Hey, do you…?” Stiles turns back towards Scott, feeling guilty for what he’s about to ask – after all, he’s the one who had been pushing for this hangout time – but his friend is already moving to pack up his gear. “What are you doing?”

“Taking off.”

“But –”

“Stiles, it’s fine,” Scott says. “I don’t mind. Isaac actually wanted to talk to me about something anyway.” Scott smiles as he zips up his bag. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

“Okay.”

Stiles watches Scott walk away, his mind whirling. Part of him can’t help but feel hurt at how fast Scott jumped at the chance to take off and hang out with his new werewolf buddy. But another, more rational, part of him knows it’s for the best. The last thing Stiles wants right now is to have to figure out a lie to explain why “John” has two heartbeats. Or why Scott can hear them. 

“I’m not interrupting am I?”

“What?” Stiles turns toward the Doctor, who’s standing beside him now, rocking on his heels. “No. Course not. We were practically done anyway,” Stiles says, waving a dismissive hand.

“Good,” the Doctor says, smiling and clapping him on the shoulder, his eyes warm and kind.

Stiles can’t help smiling again. It’s comforting to have the Doctor here again. It makes Stiles feel somehow less alone. He’s not just some weak human to the Doctor. And he’s not a disappointing son who lies all time, either. He’s someone special. He’s his mother’s child. He’s the boy who still sometimes dreams of travelling in a blue box.

“So, what’s this for?” asks the Doctor, taking Stiles’ lacrosse stick from his hand and giving it an experimental twirl. “Field hockey?”

Stiles rolls his eyes, “Lacrosse.”

“Ah, _lacrosse_ ,” the Doctor says, drawing out the word as if it amuses him. “You know I met a Jesuit priest once who loved the sport. He was terrible at it, though, I mean _really_ terrible. But he never let it stop him from playing. He was a good man. And his determination came in quite handy when we ran into a spot of trouble with a Mishibijiw.”

“A mish-eh-bit…mish-hib…?”

“A mih-shih-bih-zhew,” the Doctor enunciates, twirling Stiles’ lacrosse stick again. He looks part silly, part brilliant doing it; like someone who is extremely deft with the instrument they are holding, but who also isn’t really trying at the moment. 

“They’re also known as water panthers,” the Doctor says, absently. “They look a little bit like they could be a cross between a cougar and a V’Ripple – what you’d call a Chinese dragon” (Stiles desperately wants to ask, but he holds himself back) “only larger than you’d imagine and with a lot more teeth. Usually they stay away from people, living comfortably at the bottom of deep lakes, but this particular one decided it enjoyed drowning people.”

Stiles has a sudden flashback to the pool and Derek and the feeling of peace that had swept over him when he’d finally let go and let the water take him. He shudders and decides a change of topic is in order. 

“So, what are you doing here, Doctor? Not that it’s not great to see you – I’ve missed having you visit – but it’s… been a while.”

The Doctor pauses, frowning down at the stick in his hand for a moment. “Sorry,” he says, after a long moment looking back at Stiles. “I never meant to be gone so long.”

“S’okay,” Stiles shrugs. The Doctor’s important and often busy and it’s not like Stiles’ mom is here anymore. He gets it. It’s not the first time someone’s forgotten about him and it probably won’t be the last.

“All right,” the Doctor says suddenly, mood shifting to something a few shades brighter. “What say we take you home so you can pack?”

“Pack?”

“Well, I think you’d feel a little more comfortable about travelling across the universe if you had at least one change of clothes. Don’t you?”

Stiles feels his eyebrows climb high along his forehead. “Are you serious!?”

“Of course. I promised your mother I’d take you travelling someday and now seems as good a time as any, don’t you think?” the Doctor says.

“Hells yeah!” Stiles says, excitedly punching the air above him. This is awesome.

~~~

Sheriff Jonas-Quid – call me Jon – Stilinski is in the midst of sorting through a stack of resumes on his desk when he hears his son come banging through the front door excitedly chatting away at full speed.

“…and then I scored the winning goal! Me. A benchwarmer. You should have seen it. It was so cool. I mean _the_ winning goal. Can you believe it?”

“Absolutely.”

The voice isn’t familiar, but it has a distinct British-like flavour to it that immediately has Jon on his feet.

“Hey,” his son continues, as Jon heads to the front hall. “Do you think I should bring my lacrosse stick? In case we meet up with something like that mih-shih… mih-shah… That water panther thing you mentioned? Can’t hurt to be prepared, right?”

“I don’t –”

“Stiles, what’s going on?” Jon asks, rounding the corner.

“Oh. Hey, dad,” Stiles says, frozen mid-motion by the stairs. It’s clear from his stance that he was just about to bolt up them. “Uh, what are you…?”

Jon crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow. 

“Umm…”

“Jon-Quid,” the Doctor says, taking a step forward.

“Doctor.” 

Jon frowns. The Doctor hasn’t used his formal title since… Actually, Jon’s not sure when the Doctor last addressed him as such. Probably before he married Klaudia; definitely before Stiles was born. Something’s going on and Jon’s fairly sure he’s not going to like it.

“Well, this isn’t awkward,” Stiles mutters.

“Stiles…” Jon starts in a warning tone, but the Doctor cuts him off.

“Stiles, I think your dad and I need to have a little chat. Do you think you could give us a few moments?”

“Um, sure.” Stiles grabs the banister. “I’ll just… Be in my room.” Stiles heads up the stairs, but then quickly comes back down. “Doctor, you’re not going to leave again, are you? Not without at least saying good-bye, right?”

Stiles has the same panicked look on his face as when Jon made the Doctor leave Klaudia’s funeral. It’s even more heartbreaking now, though, because Jon can’t pretend the look is all about his mother being gone.

“He’s not going to leave without say good-bye, Stiles. Don’t worry; I won’t let him. Now give us a minute?”

Stiles nods. Then, before another word can be said, he rushes over, gives the Doctor a big hug, and takes off back up the stairs.

“He’s gotten so big,” the Doctor says quietly, looking towards where Stiles has disappeared.

“Yeah, he has,” Jon says, and heads for the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope to make posting a weekly thing (on Sundays), but as I have like 15 other WiPs bouncing around in my head, howling for attention right now, I may get distracted. I will, however, do my best to post updates on my [tumblr](http://soldier-born87.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to read my story. This journey is worth all the more because of you.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope to make posting a weekly thing (on Sundays), but as I have like 15 other WiPs bouncing around in my head, howling for attention right now, I may get distracted. I will, however, do my best to post updates on my [tumblr](http://soldier-born87.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to read my story. This journey is worth all the more because of you.


End file.
